The Spine Succeeded
by DeepInTheAttic
Summary: Myka has a dream about the Spine of the Saracen, only this time Pete's heart didn't restart.
1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note: I do not own Warehouse 13. The Warehouse, all of its contents and it's characters all belong to the Syfy Network. No Copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

_Myka was kneeling at Pete's side performing chest compressions as hard and fast as she could. "Come on Pete! You can't go!" Myka knew that she would not survive the loss of another partner. _

_Myka and Pete had been following the wrath of the Spine of the Saracen all day. It had been about an hour since the spine had attached itself to her partner and Artie had communicated that the only way the Spine separates from a person is when that person is totally devoid energy: dead. _

_Due to a blast of electricity, the Spine had been removed from Pete, yet he still lay unconscious on the floor. _

_Behind Myka, former agent Rebecca grabbed a fire extinguisher and succeeded in demolishing the Spine.. Myka continued compressions and tried a percordial thump as a last ditch attempt. _

_It didn't work. Pete lay motionless on the floor. That was it. There were no other options. He had no pulse. He wasn't breathing. He was gone. It had happened again._

* * *

"PETE!" Myka yelled as she awoke in a cold sweat and shaking. It took a few moments before she realized where she was. She was surprised to find herself in her bed at the B&B and not in the basement of the St. Louis Police Station. Unable to do anything else Myka pulled her knees up to her chest and cried, fully believing that her dream was true.

* * *

"PETE!"

At Myka's scream the rest of the B&B awoke. Sure, occasionally Claudia or Pete have made a racket in the middle of the night, usually because Claudia came up with a brilliant plan or Pete stumbled over something on his way to get his midnight Hoagie, but Myka? Myka only yells when absolutely necessary and it usually has to do with capturing an artifact. Even more than that, Myka sleeps like a rock, she never wakes up in the middle of the night.

Pete jumped out of bed and flung open his bedroom door to find Leena standing in the middle of the hallway staring in the direction of Myka's door. It seemed to Pete that Leena had been standing there even before Myka had yelled. He wanted to ask Leena how she got there so quickly since it was usually he who knew before something strange was about to happen.

"What the frack? What time is it?" Claudia yawned as she opened her door to see what the commotion was.

By now Pete had ran past Leena towards his partner's bedroom door.

"Mykes! What's going on? Open the door!" Pete demanded, ready to kick down the door. "MYKA!"

"Go away!" came a quiet yet scared voice from inside the room.

"Leena what's going on?" Claudia questioned walking cautiously into the hallway.

Whimpering was heard from inside Myka's room and Pete looked at Leena and Claudia with a look of panic. Something had to be very wrong for Myka to be so upset.

After seeing Pete's face, Claudia slid across the hallway on her socks and landed in front of Myka's door.

"She's crying?" choked Claudia. Myka was always the stable one; barely ever showing the slightest bit of negative emotion. With the realization of what was going on, Claudia appeared as if she had seen a ghost.

When neither Claudia nor Leena moved, Pete crashed into Myka's the door not being able to wait another second. Before Pete could recover from his ninja moves, Claudia was already in the room and on Myka's bed.

"Myka? What's going on? Are you ok" Claudia asked as she touched Myka gently on the shoulder. At Claudia's touch, Myka yelped almost shocked to see someone on her bed, never the less someone touching her.

After checking to make sure Pete hadn't broken any bones in his heroic act, Leena came into the room and made her way to the bed. Pete hung back at the doorway unsure of what to do now that he was actually in the room.

"Hey Mykes…" Pete said quietly and made a move towards the bed.

As Myka looked up from her curled position and saw Pete, she turned white as a ghost, jumped out of bed and vomited into the waist basket.

"Um Pete… I think it might be best if you leave" Leena offered as she walked towards Pete who looked utterly crushed. Regardless of how he felt, Pete knew better than to argue in such a situation and went into the hallway as Leena shut the door behind him.


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's Note: I do not own Warehouse 13. The Warehouse, all of its contents and it's characters all belong to the Syfy Network. No Copyright infringement intended.**

* * *

Claudia handed Myka a few tissues and Leena retrieved the glass of water the nearby nightstand. As Myka cleaned herself up and sat back down on her bed, Claudia realized that the look on Myka's face was one that she knew far too well; she had seen it far too many times staring back at her from a mirror.

Leena offered the glass to Myka who took a sip and then cautiously looked around the room. Leena took the glass back and met Claudia on the other side of the bed. Leena motioned with her hand for Claudia to follow her away from Myka's bed.

As they walked to the opposite end of the room Leena whispered, "her aura is very dark, and not at all how it normally looks."

"Though I don't have supernatural powers, I think I'd have to agree with you" Claudia replied in her normal manner as Leena gave her a knowing glance.

"I think _you_ should talk to her" said Leena as they watched Myka curl back up into a ball.

"I'm … not so sure that's a good idea. Isn't that kind of _your_ job as keeper of this place?" Claudia questioned as she motioned to the ceiling.

"Claudia… I don't want to seem like Big Brother but I've noticed that ever since Joshua left you've become close with Myka."

Claudia tried to interject but Leena continued, "and whether you agree with that or not, you know that both Pete and Myka care about you like a sister."

Claudia couldn't argue with that. Though she comes off as being independent and autonomous, she really liked having Pete and Myka around.

* * *

Last month, by Claudia's urging, Joshua moved out of the B&B to join the Nuclear Research team at CERN. Sure Claudia wanted her brother to be happy and successful but she didn't mean for him to leave right away. After all, she had spent almost a decade without him and she wasn't ready to let him go so soon even though she wanted what was best for him. After her big brother's reassurance that they would stay in close contact, Claudia put on a brave face and acted as if it made no difference to her if Josh was in the room next door or half way around the world.

The hardest time was at night. Though most of her long time recurrent nightmares had ended, those mostly regarding Joshua and her inability to help him, a new set of dreams set in. The new nighttime visions centered on Joshua getting sucked back into the inter-dimensional bubble except this time there was no way for her to help him escape.

In the nights after Josh's departure, Claudia took to staying up late researching or tinkering with gadgets to try to ward off the bad dreams. Myka often stayed up late reading and noticed this change in the teen's behavior. For the first week that Claudia was at the B&B she went to bed early, appreciative of the comfortable clean bed that Leena and the team provided for her. Now she was rarely asleep before 3 AM.

Myka knew something was going on but she didn't want to impose. Desperate to be of some comfort to the girl, without getting too close, Myka took to reading in Claudia's room as the teen fought against sleep. Claudia really appreciated that the experienced agent would give up her beloved private reading time to sit with her. The best part of their interactions was that Myka never made Claudia talk and never tried to ask questions. After a few nights of staying up late with Myka sitting in her room, Claudia realized that the Agent really did care about her and she slowly began to open up about her nightmares. Myka was becoming a surrogate big sister and though she wouldn't admit it, as it would ruin her reputation, she secretly treasured their moments together because it was at those times that she didn't feel so alone.

* * *

"OK I'll do it" Claudia took a deep breath and walked over to Myka's bed. She carefully crawled onto the bed toward the headboard so that Myka could see her and gingerly sat down.

While Claudia contemplated what she was going to say, Leena quietly made her way into the hallway to check on Pete.

* * *

"So you had a nightmare huh?" Claudia asked as she fidgeted with the thick beaded bed spread.

"I…I gu..guess so" stammered Myka.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Claudia questioned. Even though she thought this was the worst question to ask, or to be asked for that matter, she couldn't think of anything better to say.

"I'll be fine, I…I think I'll just try to go back to sleep" Myka whispered through sobs.

"Umm … just so you know Pete's OK, he's right outside the door" Claudia tried to reassure her usually confident friend.

"Yea … I .. I guess I just forgot for a minute" Myka mumbled from her pillow. "You can go back to bed. I'll be fine."

Claudia knew from experience that no one just "forgets" if their best friend was dead or alive. She also knew that Myka really didn't want to be left alone and even more so that it wasn't a good idea to turn a blind eye and ignore the issue.

"Well, I think I'll just sit here for a bit" Claudia said as she settled against the pillows and drew her legs under the covers.

Myka made no response and turned away from Claudia and settled on her side.

* * *

**Thank you for reading! Ch.3 to come soon!**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Warehouse 13, it belongs to the SyFy network. **

* * *

Leena walked out of Myka's room and quietly closed the door behind her. She was hesitant about how Claudia would handle this situation, but she felt confident that it would be a good experience for her to take charge of, even if Claudia would never admit it.

Pete was sitting at the top of the staircase staring blankly ahead. Leena saw that his eyes were red but didn't mention it as she was quite aware of how to step around his pride. She stepped down off the landing and took a seat next to the agent and waited until Pete made some acknowledgement of her presence.

Pete stared a moment more before turning to Leena. "How is she?" he whispered as his voice caught.

"She's pretty shaken. It appears she had some sort of nightmare and from what I can tell, you died in the dream."

Pete rested his head in one hand and raked the other through his hair; unable to process what he was being told.

"When you walked into the room Myka was still in the dream and since you were dead at the time, seeing you was completely shocking, thus leading to her getting sick."

Pete looked at Leena with the eyes of an injured puppy. "I've … I've never seen her like this. I feel so helpless." Pete paused and Leena saw a tear tracking down his face. "I need to help her. It's my fault this is happening."

Leena knew about the difficult day that Pete and Myka had gone through and she knew that both agents would need to address what they had experienced before they could move forward.

"Why don't we go down to the kitchen?" Leena offered to Pete.

"I'm not hungry."

"Well that's certainly a first" Leena tried to joke. "Come on, I'll whip up a batch of Oatmeal Scotchies and you can lick the spoon."

"Umm … ok".

Pete got up and followed Leena down the stairs to the kitchen where he knew he would have to face more than just a fresh batch of cookies.

* * *

After only a few minutes of sitting with Myka, Claudia began to nod off. She quickly shook off sleep as Myka turned over to face her.

"Hey" Claudia smiled with a concerned look wrinkling her eyebrows.

"He wanted me to kill him!" whispered Myka from under the covers.

"It's ok, it was just a dream" Claudia attempted to reassure Myka.

"No Claude," Myka sat up with a serious look on her face, "this afternoon Pete really asked me to kill him. He wanted to destroy the Spine and we thought the only way to do it was if Pete died along with the artifact. He couldn't reach the clamps to the spine on his back and … and he asked me to do it!"

Myka began to cry silently. Claudia's heart was breaking as she watched her favorite role model break down in front of her

"I can't … I couldn't … I … I" Myka tried explaining through what had quickly turned to sobs.

"Myka, look at me!" Claudia demanded putting a hand on Myka's shoulder. "Take a deep breath … there you go." Claudia was able to keep Myka's breathing in check so she wouldn't begin to hyperventilate.

Claudia noticed that Myka was now shaking with tears freely flowing down her face.

Once catching her breath Myka managed to say "I cannot lose another partner. I killed Sam and I wasn't about to go through that again. I don't think I could survive it again."

Though Claudia was still new to the Warehouse, Artie and Pete had filled her in on Myka's past experience of losing Sam, her boyfriend and fellow Secret Service Agent. Sam was shot and Myka always felt responsible.

"Myka" Claudia began as she inched closer to Myka hoping that she could provide some comfort through osmosis, "you did not kill Sam. He got to his position early and that was not your fault."

"But I could have been there earlier, I could have stopped it" Myka whispered the same thing she had said to Pete whenever this conversation had come up.

"Umm … have you been thinking about this a lot lately" Claudia offered hoping that her time in the "Bell Jar" could now be of some use.

"No" Myka tried defensively, though she knew it wouldn't work. "I can't help it. Last month when Pete ended up in the hospital after falling out the side of that truck, it hit me; I could easily lose another partner, especially while working here." Myka's eyes widened as if she were staring at the scene playing right in front of her.

Claudia remembered when Pete fell out of the box truck, actually when he fell through the side of the box truck due to a Native American artifact. The whole Warehouse staff was quite shaken by the event as they realized that the chances they took on a daily basis were much larger than those of the general population.

"I mean just seeing Pete lying on the ground and being unable to get up after the fall just brought back everything" Myka shared. "It's the feeling of being helpless; that's the worse …" Myka trailed off as she succumbed to her inner thoughts.

"But you were still able to act and help him. Pete only stayed in the hospital for a few days after the truck accident and then he was fine." Claudia hoped that by reminding Myka of the truth she could help her realize that Pete is fine and that she isn't going to lose another partner. "And this time you _literally _restarted Pete's heart and saved his life!"

As Claudia finished her words of empowerment she looked over to see that Myka hadn't heard a word she had said. Myka was back in her nightmare.


End file.
